INDIA232/4(46 OVERS)

END OF OVER:

46 | 7 Runs | INDIA: 232/4 | RR: 5.04

KD Karthik64 (92b)

MS Dhoni18 (21b)

TG Southee9-1-60-1

AF Milne8-1-21-1

That's all we have from commentary. Thank you for your company. Good night

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the Man of the Match. "That's my nature, I'm calm, and however you practice you replicate that. I never try to do anything different. It's the way I bowl, with the new ball, I swing it. It wasn't happening today, so I just tried to bowl in good areas, got two wickets and that gave me confidence. Things get easier for you when you're confident. There's no easy route to success, but with confidence, you can do those good things better. I'm not muscular, but thanks to the trainer, introducing player-specific training, I feel much confident and stronger when it comes to fitness"

"Pretty good game for us today. Exactly what we spoke at toss time. Pitch would be slow in the evening, better to bat at night," Virat Kohli says. "Great to see Bummrah and Bhuvi, they are our top two bowlers, they know they will start more often than not, so they can create plans. And today with the wicket being slow, it was great to see them getting batsmen out in conventional ways, not ugly wickets. Shikhar has been playing very well, one odd game he's faltered, but he's hitting the ball really well and he's getting good runs at the top. Dinesh as well, getting crucial runs for himself and for the team. We look forward to any challenge on us. We spoke about needing to bounce back, and we've done that."

9.10 pm "One of those surfaces where if you get a good score on the board and squeeze, the bowlers would have made life difficult," Kane Williamson says. "We weren't good enough at the top, India's opening bowlers were very very well, hit the mark,
the length on that surface. There's a lesson there for us. And we know we have to play a lot better to beat these guys. The surface wasn't easy to play fluently and Colin came out and went at run-a-ball. We came here with high hopes, we put a much better performance in Mumbai and we need to be better again in Kanpur"

9.00 pm The groundwork for this victory was in the backroom, with India working on methods to stop New Zealand's batsmen from profiting with the sweep shot. They brought in a spinner who bowls flat and wicket to wicket and they also had a pitch that helped the fast bowlers. With that little bit of movement in the air and off the pitch, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah picked up five wickets between them to strangle New Zealand to 230.

Thereafter, it was only a matter of some of the top-order batsmen stepping up. Shikhar Dhawan did, with a fifty, and so did Dinesh Karthik, from No. 4, a position that has been difficult for India. "It was important to spend time in the middle," he says. "Important to stay there till the end. Maybe I took a bit more time, but with confidence, everything comes. You have a lot of demons to fight on the comeback trail. A lot of credit to Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli to give me the confidence to go there and play my game. It was slow pitch, after the new ball, scoring runs was tricky. So I wanted us not to lose wickets. Not able to put into words what I'm feeling, got a good score in this game, but I have to win more matches, when the required rate is high, I need to score more boundaries and win those games."

Madan: "@Darshan: In this day and age, you can't possibly find a player who will own a position for 5-6 years. The best you could do and what is done is planning for the next world cup. Having said that, if Dhoni is an integral part for WC19, he should play no.4 as often as possible to get used to it. There's no other logical position for him right now."

santosh battula: "@Real : I think it in the other way. Let us play till the last over letting them bowl the full quota and get them tired mentally enough too.. :-P"

45.6

4

Southee to Karthik, FOUR, smacks it through cover to win the game for India. Excellent shot to seal an excellent game for India. They level the series 1-1

45.5

1

Southee to Dhoni, 1 run, pushes a full delivery down the ground for a single to mid-on

45.4

0

Southee to Dhoni, no run, wide of the crease for a shortish delivery outside off. Punch to cover

Southee to Karthik, 1 leg bye, goes off the thigh pad to square leg as Karthik aims for a flick

45.2

1

Southee to Dhoni, 1 run, tries to come down the pitch, but Milne pulls his length back and cramps Dhoni. Flick to deep square leg results

45.1

0

Southee to Dhoni, no run, shortish and outside off, looks to be the cross-seamer, which kicks up considerably. Enough to beat Dhoni on the cut shot

Real: "Once required run under 50 India should have gone for the kill to take psychological advantage for decider." ---- It's not really that kind of pitch though. The pace is slow, and New Zealand have bowled reasonably well through the middle overs